The Chemistry of Cookery

the sweat, which is liquid, and the solid particles of exuded cuticle. Lavoisier and Seguin long ago made very laborious experiments upon themselves in order to determine the amount of the insensible perspiration. Seguin enclosed himself in a bag of glazed taffeta, which was tied over him with no other opening than a hole corresponding to his mouth; the edges of this hole were glued to his lips with a mixture of turpentine and pitch. He carefully weighed himself and the bag before and after his enclosure therein. His own loss of weight being partly from the lungs and partly from the skin, the amount gained by the bag represented the quantity of the latter; the difference between this and the loss of his own weight gave the amount exhaled from the lungs. He thus found that the largest quantity of _insensible_ exhalation from the lungs and skin together amounted to 3½ oz. per hour, or at the rate of 5¼ lbs. per day. The smallest quantity was 1 lb. 14 oz., and the mean was 3 lbs. 11 oz. Three-fourths of this was cutaneous. These figures only show the quantity of insensible perspiration during repose. Valentin found that his hourly loss by cutaneous exhalation while sitting amounted to 32·8 grammes, or rather less than 1¼ oz. On taking exercise, with an empty stomach, in the sun, the hourly loss increased to 89·3 grammes, or nearly three times as much. After a meal followed by violent exercise, with the temperature of the air at 72° F., it amounted to 132·7 grammes, or nearly 4½ times as much as during repose. A robust man, taking violent exercise in hot weather, may give off as much as 5 lbs. in an hour. The third excretion from the skin, the epithelial or superficial scales of the epidermis, is small in weight, but it is solid, and of similar composition to gelatin. It should be understood that this increases largely with exercise. The practice of sponging and ‘rubbing down’ of athletes removes the excess; but I am not aware of any attempt that has